Media Outlet Anoints Purdue No. 1 Team in Way-Too-Early Rankings for 2025-26 Season

We can all agree that it's incredibly early to make any predictions about college basketball for the 2025-26 season. With so many players in the transfer portal and NBA Draft decisions coming, a lot of questions remain unanswered. But if Purdue fans are looking for some offseason optimism, The Athletic has you covered.

In its way-too-early rankings for the 2025-26 college basketball season, The Athletic has pegged Purdue as the No. 1 team in the country. The anointment as the top squad in the country comes after the Boilermakers finished the 2024-25 campaign with a 24-12 record and reached the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Purdue is expected to return 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-American Braden Smith, as well as first-team All-Big Ten selection Trey Kaufman-Renn and All-Big Ten honorable mention Fletcher Loyer.

Additionally, the Boilers return starting guard CJ Cox and key reserves Gicarri Harris and Raleigh Burgess, as well as 7-foot-4 freshman Daniel Jacobsen, who missed most of the 2024-25 season with injury.

Coach Matt Painter and his staff also made a huge splash in the transfer portal, adding 6-foot-11 big man Oscar Cluff from South Dakota State. He averaged 17.6 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

"Talent plus roster continuity is a winning formula, and no team has a better combination of that at this moment than Purdue. The Boilermakers’ perimeter depth took a hit with the recent departures of Myles Colvin (to Wake Forest) and Camden Heide (Texas), but this will be the only team returning a first-team AP All-American in Braden Smith, not to mention an honorable mention in forward Trey Kaufman-Renn," The Athletic's CJ Moore wrote of the Boilermakers.

"Coach Matt Painter added a veteran big who is an elite rebounder in South Dakota State transfer Oscar Cluff, who was a starter on the Washington State team that won an NCAA Tournament game in 2024. Daniel Jacobsen could emerge as the next star Purdue big and could provide the rim protection this season’s group really missed without Zach Edey. It’s also possible Purdue could add one perimeter player or more, which would strengthen the Boilers’ preseason No. 1 case."

The top-10 from The Athletic looks like this (you can view the complete top-25 here):

Purdue Boilermakers
Florida Gators
Houston Cougars
Louisville Cardinals
Michigan Wolverines
BYU Cougars
Michigan State Spartans
Auburn Tigers
UConn Huskies
Duke Blue Devils

Before the start of the 2024-25 season, Purdue set out to win a third straight Big Ten regular season title and reaching a second consecutive Final Four. The Boilers fell short of those goals, but are armed with the necessary weopanry to accomplish both of those feats this coming season.

Purdue won the Big Ten regular season title in 2023 and 2024, claimed a Big Ten Tournament crown in 2023 and played in the National Championship Game in 2024. Will the Boilers be headed back to the Final Four next year?

Again, it's still awfully early to project, but there's a lot of faith in Painter and his staff to get Purdue back to college basketball's pinnacle event.

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